Iron-doped cobalt oxide nanoarray for efficient electrocatalytic nitrate-to-ammonia conversion

Peipei Wei; Jie Liang; Qian Liu; Lisi Xie; Xin Tong; Yuchun Ren; Tingshuai Li; Yongsong Luo; Na Li; Bo Tang; Abdullah M Asiri; Mohamed S Hamdy; Qingquan Kong; Zhiming Wang; Xuping Sun

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.01.186

Iron-doped cobalt oxide nanoarray for efficient electrocatalytic nitrate-to-ammonia conversion

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Jun:615:636-642. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.01.186. Epub 2022 Feb 1.

Authors

Peipei Wei¹, Jie Liang¹, Qian Liu², Lisi Xie², Xin Tong³, Yuchun Ren¹, Tingshuai Li¹, Yongsong Luo⁴, Na Li⁴, Bo Tang⁴, Abdullah M Asiri⁵, Mohamed S Hamdy⁶, Qingquan Kong⁷, Zhiming Wang⁸, Xuping Sun⁹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China.
² Institute for Advanced Study, Chengdu University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610106, China.
³ Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China; Yangtze Delta Region Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Huzhou, Zhejiang 313001, China.
⁴ College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, Shandong 250014, China.
⁵ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science & Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Catalysis Research Group (CRG), Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Institute for Advanced Study, Chengdu University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610106, China. Electronic address: kongqingquan@cdu.edu.cn.
⁸ Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China; Yangtze Delta Region Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Huzhou, Zhejiang 313001, China. Electronic address: zhmwang@uestc.edu.cn.
⁹ Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China; College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, Shandong 250014, China. Electronic address: xpsun@uestc.edu.cn.

PMID: 35158194
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.01.186

Abstract

Electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO₃RR) is an attractive alternative to NH₃ production under ambient conditions. Although noble metal-based catalysts exhibit decent NO₃RR performance to NH₃, the high cost and insufficient supply obstruct its large-scale application. In this work, we report that Fe-doped Co₃O₄ nanoarray efficiently catalyzes NO₃RR for NH₃ production in neutral conditions. It achieves a large NH₃ yield of 0.624 mg mg_cat.^-1h^-1 and high Faradaic efficiency of 95.5% at -0.7 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Besides, this catalyst exhibits good NO₃RR stability. Density functional theory calculations reveal favorable adsorption of NO₃^- on Fe-doped Co₃O₄, which is conducive to NH₃ production in the NO₃RR process.

Keywords: Density functional theory; Fe-doped Co(3)O(4); NH(3) production; Nitrate reduction reaction.